Our Hero Academia: Chapter 13
To Reach the Top Zenji walked a few feet from his classroom, waiting outside the equally large door for Class 2-B. The belle rang, and the students from Class 2-B exited. A few of them said hi, others just gave him looks. A blonde girl gave him a brief smile and wave before catching up to a white-haired kid. That's when who was really waiting for came out. "What's up Ei?" he said to the last male student to exit the classroom. "Zenji Kaisei," he said. "It's been a while since I last saw you." A young girl with black hair came following behind Eikyo, he slightly blocked the walk way which prevented her from exiting the room entirely. "Outta the way Eikyo!" She smacked his behind in protest, just to be sure he'd make notice of her being there. "Horatia, no need to be so hostile," he said, moving out of the way enough for her to exit the classroom. He put his arm around her shoulder. "You remember Horatia, right Zenji?" "Yes," Zenji grumbled. Horatia looked Zenji up and down, as if judging his appearance. "So, you still look as lonesome as ever." Zenji quickly sniffed the air. "You still smell like a bitch." Horatia scoffed at his comment, but she had to admit it was a good comeback regardless. "Hell do you want Kaisei." "I'm here to Ei, not you." He turned his attention back to other Class B student. "You're probably one of the strongest students in our year--" "The strongest," Eikyo interrupted. "Yeah, whatever, I would like to train with you for the lead-up before the Sports Festival." Horatia gave Zenji yet another look, taking pride in the situation Zenji had just put himself in. "Well, Eikyo and I already said we'd train together, so if you want to train with him. You gotta put up with me too." "Great," Zenji thought. "Well, I need to work on training against high speed opponents, my dad and sister have been busy lately, so I'd enjoy laying you flat on your ass." "Play nice you two," said Eikyo. "I don't want to have to pry you two off of each other again like last year." "No promises." "You got lucky during the Sports Festival! I'm not letting my guard down this time." She was prepared to go all out on him during the training. Not to help him, but just to put him in the dirt. "I'd lay you flat on your ass. Only problem is you barely have one." "I have been told I have a great ass thank you very much!" Zenji shouted. Some of the students walked through the hallway stopped and stared at the group of three. "If you show that you're embarrassed, she wins." "Let's just get to one of the training fields," said Eikyo, "before either of you embarrass yourselves further." "Oh Eikyo, you know me." She kissed him on his cheeks before heading towards the training field. "I never get embarrassed." "I hate your girlfriend," said Zenji. "She's not my girlfriend." ---- The three students arrived at one of the fields shortly afterwards. It was after regular class hours, so there weren't that many people on campus. "First thing's first," said Zenji, stretching as he was in his P.E. clothes. "Come at me Horatia." Horatia stretched as well, limbering up so she could perform her high speed sprints. "Get ready!" She didn't have her Chronal Stabilizer on, so she had to be careful with how much she used her quirk. She charged at Zenji with full speed, performing a power slide to get to his side. She followed up by putting all her balance onto her left arm, rotating her body to get a good kick at the back of Zenji's knee. Zenji did a small hop, jut over her kick, but ensuring he wouldn't be in midair for too long. On his way back down, he aimed to stomp on her leg. Thanks to the momentum, she'd gotten her legs out of Zenji's stomping zone. She found herself in the perfect position to perform a tackle. And by instinct, she lunged for the chance. Ready to bring him to the ground. Zenji allowed her momentum to carry, his legs being taken off the ground. He wrapped them around Horatia's waist, and used momentum to flip her over and using his legs to keep her trapped within them. As Zenji flipped her over on the ground, she kept a grip on him. Still using the momentum, she pushed on him to roll herself over on top. Suggesting it all goes as planned, she'd move onto using her legs to keep Zenji's enclosed together. Restricting his movement and giving her complete dominance over the boy. Zenji laid on the ground, Horatia going for an attempt to pin him. A quick snap could be heard from Zenji's legs as suddenly Horatia was flung from his body. Zenji winced, but the pain quickly subsided as his bones were automatically set and fused. "You're not gonna use your Quirk? It's the entire reason I'm even entertaining the idea of this fight." Horatia stuck the landing, sliding a bit due to the momentum and little friction. She smirked as it was obvious Zenji anticipated the arrival of her quirk. "I can't just use my quirk willy nilly. You have to actually be worth it." She taunted, hoping he'd go for the bait. Zenji picked up a rock from the ground, tossing it up and down. "Gotta fastball for you." Another snap could be heard as he through the rock with bullet-like speed right towards her stomach. Horatia acted on instinct, activating her Quirk on accident. "Why that dirty son of a-" She ran at him, counting down from 5 in her head. She swung a punch at his stomach as everything set back in motion. To what was 5 seconds for Horatia, wasn't even a second for everyone else. In reality, she'd sprinted at Zenji. Yet to everyone else, it seemed as if she teleported right in front of him. As the punch was already in motion before Horatia returned to the flow of time, it would seem impossible for Zenji to dodge her punch. The punch hit Zenji square in the gut, but without even a moment of hesitation he launched a punch straight at Horatia's face, with enough force to send her hurtling backwards. "So predictable." Horatia activated her quirk again. Zenji's fist stopping right before the blow. She exhaled in relief and quickly ran to Zenji's back side. She jumped to his back right as she returned to the flow of time. She seemed to teleport once again, she went in to use her legs to wrap around Zenji's neck from the back. Blue particles appeared where her arms would normally be, yet they seemed absent. "Look at you, forcing me to use my quirk two times in a row." She began to squeeze her thighs around his neck, attempting to force him to pass out. "Who's predictable now Kaisei?" "Still you," Zenji managed to gasp out. He grabbed onto Horatia's legs, but didn't make a great attempt to remove her from him. His grip increased more and more, his strength was bone-crushing. If one didn't know any better, they'd say Zenji was actually trying to break her legs. Lucky for Zenji, he was very good at holding his breath. Horatia was surprised that he'd started to move her leg. Especially with her lower body strength. Her left arm phased back into place, the blue particles that originally took it's place had vanished. "Looks like good ole Lefty's back!" She used her left arm to grab at Zenji's hands while still using her legs to squeeze at him. "You know Kaisei, you definitely could've made it into the hero's course like the rest of us. If anything, you were just too dim-witted at the time to realize how to use your quirk in combat." Zenji's fingers started to crack as his strength increased even further. He opened his mouth, aiming to tear a chunk of flesh off from Horatia's leg, but suddenly the air was knocked out of his lungs. He flew backwards with so much force that Horatia was sent flying off of him as well. "I'm sorry, but that was getting obscene," said Eikyo. Horatia landed with a stumble. She looked at Eikyo and sighed. "Whatever." She dusted herself off as she walked over to him. "Be honest, who won?" "Don't know, don't care," said Eikyo quickly. "So, do you want to fight me next?" "No," Zenji replied, panting. "I want you to break me." Horatia shrugged, they were most likely expecting her to use an innuendo. But she decided against it. "Shouldn't be too hard breaking him. It's keeping him broken that's the real issue." "That's the idea" said Zenji, loosening his muscles up with a few more stretches. "I get stronger the more times I get injured. So I want you to break me until I can't break anymore." "You sure about this?" said Eikyo. "You don't have any morphine on you. You'll feel every bit of pain from this." "I know," Zenji replied. "I'll get to increase my pain tolerance too." "I say give him what he wants." Horatia took a sip of her water. "You both benefit regardless." "Alright then." Eikyo began taking a few steps towards Zenji. He took a step upwards and found himself standing on the air. He stopped ascending a few feet above Zenji. "Ready?" Zenji braced himself. "Ready." Eikyo pulled his arm back, his palm open. He forced it back down. An invisible wall suddenly pinned Zenji to the ground. He began to push against somehow being able to lift it just slightly off of himself, a cracking being heard in his arms. "More power!" And Eikyo gave him just that. Zenji was completely prone on the ground, the asphalt below him even giving way as he slowly sunk into it. "Panic Word is pie!" Horatia shouted. She didn't want anyone getting hurt more than they needed to. So she felt it was only right to give him a word to say when he had enough. Zenji grunted as he was pressed further and further into the ground. The cracking and breaking of not just the ground, but his own bones rung through the air. His eyes looked determined. "I don't think he's gonna use it," said Eikyo. Horatia just watched on as Zenji sunk further and further into the ground. She knew he'd recover later. But he shouldn't have to put himself through something like this just to prove his strength. Eikyo relented, the air pressure suddenly stopping. Zenji slowly leaned back up. His body began to heal, the bones setting back into place. Zenji looked back up to Eikyo. "Again." Horatia sighed, watching Zenji and Eikyo begin their training once more. At this rate, I'll never advance. She got up and prepared to train on her own while the other two did their thing. ---- Horatia had exhausted herself, she sighed heavily as she looked back over to Eikyo and Zenji. What the hell, they've been doing the same damn thing for an hour. She took a long and appreciated sip from her water. Now her water battle was empty. She hit her hand against the metal to be sure if there was anything left. She sighed. "I'm going to get some more water. Maybe you both should take a breather." Eikyo stopped pushing down on Zenji with his Quirk. The latter Quirk user's regeneration had begun to slow down. "Actually, let's go get something to eat. They're probably gonna kick us out of here in a few minutes. School's gonna close soon." Zenji laid prone on the ground, panting in the crater the two of them had made. "Food sounds good. Can you carry me though?" Horatia returned with her filled water bottle, looking down at Zenji in the pit below. "I'd be more concerned about your appearance. No way you're going somewhere to eat looking like that." She sipped from her bottle, quenching her thirst. "Plus you smell from all that sweating, no one wants to smell your boy must while trying to eat." "Hey Eikyo," called Zenji. "Yeah?" "Push her into the hole. I want to get my boy musk all over her." "HA, Ei is my loyal best friend. As if he'd ever betray my friendship for the likes of you." She shouted dramatically, even fiercely pointing at him as she ended the sentence. Eikyo lightly pushed her, as if he was going to push her into the hole, but smiled, showing that he was kidding. He used his Quirk to lift Zenji out of the hole. "Seriously though," began Zenji, "if I don't eat, I can't heal. If I can't heal, I can't clean myself. Do either of you want to give me a bath?" "Ew, no." Horatia was disgusted by even the mention of Zenji and a bath. Let alone the thought of it. And she'd be absolutely repulsed if she actually had to give him a bath. "Eikyo, you threatened to push me into the hole. You wash him." "That's disgusting," said Eikyo. "And besides I was kidding. You wash him."